Key denies Cunliffe smear campaign claims

Prime Minister John Key has denied allegations of a smear
campaign against the Labour leader and said it was David
Cunliffe's own fault that he was under the spotlight now.

Mr Key was speaking to reporters while in Washington.

He was asked if the Government had set Mr Cunliffe up by
knowing about a letter he had written to the Immigration
Department 11 years ago regarding Chinese businessman Donghua
Liu.

"No David Cunliffe set himself up when he wrote a letter 11
years ago, didn't check his files properly, constantly said
he had no knowledge of it then the letter had to be released.

"If the new rules are 'if it is not convenient to release
information, we don't have to do' that would be great. I'll
look forward to those rules in the future."

Mr Key hinted that more information was yet to come on
donations made to the Labour Party by Mr Liu.

"I just think they should go through their records and have a
look.

"I'm very confident about that [that there's more]. I hear
lots of rumours and lots of gossip around the place. Let's
wait and see."

Asked where the rumours had come from he said "it's a highly
rumoured Parliament, isn't it".

The Labour Party should expect to live up to the same sort of
scrutiny National had been under with its own involvement
with Mr Liu, Mr Key said.

"David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson have for the last six
months been holding the blow torch to National, expecting
accountability of ministers, demanding transparency for the
New Zealand public which is fair enough.